Bosnia & Herzegovina spent most of 2011 in turmoil after an inconclusive
general election result in October 2010 left the country's political
leaders squabbling over how best to form a coalition for the best part
of 14 months, only resolving the issue in late December 2011 and
electing a new government in February 2012. The political parties
representing the country's three ethnic groups - Bosniaks, Serbs and
Croats - agreed to share power and distribute ministerial posts fairly
among themselves, with Vjekoslav Bevanda of the Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ) appointed Prime Minister and the presidency rotating between
the parties every eight months (in accordance with the 1995 Dayton Peace
Accord). However, cracks began to emerge in 2012, not least in the form
of infighting between the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and Social
Democratic Party (SDP) over the right to represent the country's Muslim
population. Their infighting and the SDA's refusal to vote for the 2012
state budget culminated in parliament voting to remove Deputy Finance
Minister Fuad Kasumovic, Security Minister Sadik Ahmetovic and Defence
Minister Muhamed Ibrahimovic as punishment in mid-October 2012 and could
ultimately lead HDZ, the country's leading Croat party, to assume the
SDA's position in the ruling coalition.

Assuming Bosnia & Herzegovina does retain its military and its central
government manages to stay together, the author anticipates defence
spending of US$185.67mn in 2013, a 9.5% decline on the US$205.15mn spent
in 2012, which in itself marked a decrease of 12.3% on 2011's
US$233.93mn. This will account for just 0.93% of the country's GDP.
Bosnia and Herzegovina's military currently consists of around 15,000
active troops, 5,000 reserve troops and 1,000 civilian staff.